Making Sense of IWOM

Topic 2: How IWOM is generated and disseminated

Sep 2009

© 2009 CIC

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Overview

Do consumers proactively generate and

disseminate IWOM?

Why do consumers generate and disseminate

IWOM?

How to segment the consumers who actively

generate and disseminate IWOM?

About IWOM White Paper

About CIC

Contents

© 2009 CIC

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© 2009 CIC

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For the past 5 years, CIC has been studying Chinese consumers through systematic

observation and analysis of social internet platforms such as blogs, BBS and social

networks. CIC uses a unique methodology that combines quantitative and qualitative

approaches, including online ethnography, as well as cutting edge text mining technology.

Through systematic observation and analysis of online platforms, their users and other

essential elements, we have come to understand consumers’ online behavior and culture.

In Topic1 of CIC’s “Making Sense of IWOM” white paper series, we discussed “the role of

internet word of mouth (IWOM) in purchase decisions” and found that consumers pay

attention to and search IWOM to reduce purchasing risk. Furthermore, IWOM has the ability

to change consumers’ attitude towards brands. IWOM is playing an increasingly important

role in the consumer purchase decision-making process especially when it comes to brand

awareness, purchase decision and post-purchase behavior. In addition to searching for and

paying attention to IWOM, will consumers then take initiative to generate and disseminate

IWOM? What motivates consumers to generate and disseminate IWOM? How do we

segment the consumers that are actively expressing and disseminating IWOM? These are

the subjects we will dissect in Topic 2: “How IWOM is generated and disseminated” .

We found that consumers in online communities not only passively listen to and receive

messages, but also proactively post and disseminate comments about brands and products.

This behavioral pattern builds the process of IWOM circulation and user interaction.

According to our research findings, 54.1% of BBS and blog users will initiate conversations

or post comments related to brands and products. In terms of gender, females are more

active in brand related online discussions. Regarding age, over half of the respondents

between the ages of 18 to 24, 25 to 30 and 31 to 35 proactively post their comments about

brands and products online. These age groups are more active in expressing their opinions

or advice towards brands and products than other age groups.

Through further study on the BBS/blog users who post brand/product related comments, we

identified key situations that drive consumers to post and share comments. We found that

32.4% of respondents’ comments were “triggered by others’ comments” which means they

express opinions in response to others’ comments about brands or products. This not only

shows the wide reach and circulation of IWOM, but emphasizes the strong influence of

IWOM and the interaction between community users. Meanwhile, respondents mentioned

they will generate comments about product user experience, especially after overly positive

or negative experiences. When it comes to age, respondents between the ages of 15 and 24

tend to express fine product experiences and they are prone to be affected by others’

comments and join the discussion, while respondents between 25 and 35 are more likely to

post comments about extremely positive or negative product experience. Respondents over

the age of 35 care more about expression itself. They tend to express comments more freely

and independently whatever the product experience and are less influenced by others’

comments.

Overview

© 2009 CIC

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As these are naturally occurring consumer comments, in general IWOM authentically reflects

the consumers’ impression of brands and products directly or indirectly. According to our

research findings, 70% of respondents indicated that almost all the messages they posted

are from real personal experience. In addition to sharing personal experiences, consumers

will also disseminate credible comments in online communities about brands and products

they have not tried yet, which also promotes the dissemination of IWOM.

The 3 most important motivations for consumers to generate and disseminate IWOM are

interpersonal communication, self expression and experience sharing. In terms of

gender, females focus on interpersonal communication and experience sharing; while males

focus on self expression. In terms of age, young consumers between 18 and 24 show a

stronger motivation to express themselves online across all categories of motivation. This

group of consumers is the key group for brands to understand and form long-lasting

relationships with for the future. Additionally, BBS serves as an organized gathering platform

of information and topics. BBS users are motivated to generate posts to help others or seek

solutions to problems; while blog users are motivated by self expression. Blog users pay

more attention to express personal opinions and share individual experiences. Active users

are more motivated to participate in conversations and are enthusiastic about expressing

their preferences and passions for brands and communicating with friends about shared

interests. They are the key group to target to generate and disseminate IWOM.

To gain better insight into the characteristics and culture of online community users, we

segmented the active users into disseminators and opinion leaders and conducted further

research on these specific groups. Disseminators’ motivation for expressing opinions actively

can be summarized into five categories: meet more friends and communicate with them

online; share knowledge and experience; defend the truth of brands or products; help their

growth in the online community; help their work. As for opinion leaders, they are core

members of the online community who have authority and influence over other users. They

are segmented into 4 categories: professional writer, experienced writer, normal writer and

work related writer.

This report is a general analysis of the online community and its members. The real online

community is more complicated and diverse; however, this analysis should provide a useful

framework for marketers and market researchers to better understand the online

environment and its users. With the innovation and development of the internet, online

community members are also evolving and growing. Therefore, brands need to participate in

the online community to understand consumers’ insights and communicate with them on an

equal level. Accordingly, we will discuss how brands can participate in online communities in

topic 3 of CIC’s “Making Sense of IWOM” white paper series.

Overview

© 2009 CIC

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We mentioned in Topic 1 that Chinese consumers are forming a habit of searching IWOM

before purchasing. Will consumers only search and listen to IWOM or will they also

actively express or disseminate comments related to brands or products in the online

community?

Based on our previous IWOM research experience, we found that although every online

community member has the ability to express, disseminate and receive information, each

netizens has a different level of passion for and role in generating and disseminating

IWOM. Therefore, we have segmented the online community users into different

categories according to their level of involvement.

Do consumers proactively generate and

disseminate IWOM?

The active online community members who often express opinions online.

They can be further segmented into the following 2 categories:

Disseminators: The active users who express their own opinions and

comments via posting or disseminating messages, articles etc.

Opinion leaders: They are core members in online community who are

prestigious and powerful participants with most activities and posts.

General participants

Active users

Less active members in the online community. They often view others’

posts and opinions while rarely create content to express their own

comparatively.

The BBS/Blog general participants and active users (including disseminators and opinion leaders)

are defined by a set of criteria. The indicators for segmenting community users includes the

number of posts they created per month, status and level in the community, the proportion of

original post and copy paste post as well as their online movement in the community recently etc.

© 2009 CIC

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Data source: CIC, 640 BBS/Blog users

By researching 640 BBS

users and bloggers, we

found the following points:

• 54.1% of respondents

generate comments

online related to

brands/products.

• Female (59.5%) behave

more actively than male

(49.6%).

• Regarding age, over half

of the respondents

between the ages of 18

to 24, 25 to 30 and 31 to

35 proactively post their

comments about brands

and products online.

These age groups are

more active in expressing

their opinions or advice

towards brands and

products than other age

groups.

Figure 1 Whether consumers proactively comment

on brands/products

Do consumers proactively generate and

disseminate IWOM?

© 2009 CIC

7Data source: CIC, 346 BBS/Blog users that post comments on

brands/products online

We conducted further analysis of 346 respondents who express opinions on brands/products

online

• The findings show that there were 4 types of situations in which these users express

comments. 32.4% of respondents’ comments are “triggered by others’ comments”, 28%

“comment after an extremely positive product experience”, 20.2% are “willing to comment

whatever they experienced” and 19.4% “comment when the experience is terrible.”

• Regarding gender, females prefer to express their negative experiences, while males are

more frequently express their opinions in the following three situations.

• When it comes to age, young respondents between the ages of 15 and 24 tend to express

fine product experiences, They are prone to be affected by others comments and join the

discussion. while respondents between 25 and 35 are more likely to post comments about

extremely positive or negative product experience. Respondents over the age of 35 care

more about expression itself. They tend to express comments more freely and

independently whatever the product experience is and are less influenced by others’

comments.

Figure 2 Situations that motivate consumer comments about brands/products I

Do consumers proactively generate and

disseminate IWOM?

© 2009 CIC

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We also found that consumers’ post behavior is influenced greatly by different online

community platforms and their level of activity online.

• Blog users prefer to initiate their own posts to share their experiences or opinions

while BBS users’ comments are more driven by others’ comments.

• Additionally, the behavior of active users drastically differs from general participants.

Active users will take initiative to start conversations to express their opinions while

general participants more often reply to others’ comments.

With the development of the internet, more consumers are not merely searching for

IWOM about brands or products, but are also sharing their product and brand

experiences. In addition, they are actively disseminating IWOM throughout the online

community, promoting the circulation of information and interaction between consumers

online.

Figure 3 Situations that motivate consumer comments about brands/products II

Do consumers proactively generate and

disseminate IWOM?

Data source: CIC, 346 BBS/Blog users that post comments on

brands/products online

© 2009 CIC

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We have analyzed the different situations that drive consumers to express comments. But

are those online comments all from their personal experiences? Will they only comment on

products and brands from their own personal experience?

Almost 70% of the 346 BBS/blog users who post brand/product comments stated that all or

at least most of the IWOM messages about brands and products were from their real

experience, while only 3.8% of respondents engaging in conversation have no product

experience. Therefore, generally speaking, IWOM reflects the consumers’ authentic

impression of brands. However, what about the active users that comment but have little or

no experience with brands? Actually, based on the qualitative interviews we found that

some consumers will act as online information disseminators and will spread credible posts

by others. In some cases they will just copy and paste the original post into multiple forums

and at other times they will add their own opinions even though they have no direct

experience with the product or brand. This behavior helps promote the dissemination of

IWOM across communities.

Respondents mentioned that this habit of disseminating information happens for the

following reasons: First, other users’ comments accurately represent their own opinions;

Second, they would like to share and help other users because they found the post

interesting or useful; and finally, some of them want to acquire more friends by interacting

and communicating with other users. Of course, we cannot exclude the possibility of the

small group of seeders.

Figure 4 Whether online comments are based on real experience

Do consumers proactively generate and

disseminate IWOM?

Data source: CIC, 346 BBS/Blog users that post comments on

brands/products online

© 2009 CIC

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Throughout our research, We found many consumers expressed

opinions, as well as participated in discussion and disseminate

posts actively in online communities. What are the motivations

behind this? Based on our research, we summarized the following 8

types of motivations for generating and disseminating IWOM:

interpersonal communication, self expression, experience

sharing, community status, helping others, upholding justice, work

related and seeking help*.

In terms of gender, males were more motivated by self expression

and are more active than females in generating IWOM to improve

their work. Females are more motivated by interpersonal

communication and experience sharing. They also show more

passion in defending the reputation of their favorite brands or

disclose some bad products. In terms of age, the respondents

between18 and 24 showed stronger motivation in most aspects

over other age groups. These young consumers have strong online

personalities and are full of energy. They are a key target group for

brand to understand and cultivate relationships with in the future.

Figure 5 Motivation behind consumer participation in

online communities I

*Note:

Interpersonal

communication:

Communicating with friends

and senior members in online

communities in real life and

online.

Self expression: Expressing

opinions, experiences and

feelings.

Experience sharing: Sharing

personal product

experiences, usage

experiences and learned

lessons.

Community status:

Maintaining prestige and

popularity in an online

community.

Helping others: Replying to

others’ questions, transferring

useful and insightful posts for

other users’ reference .

Upholding justice: Exposing

seeded or fake

messages, defending good

brands/products or disclosing

bad ones to urge them to

improve products or services.

Work related: Further

discussing and

communicating with

clients, strengthening

relationships with current

customers and seek potential

business cooperation to

improve work.

Seeking help: Asking for

others’ advice, seek for

solution when having difficulty.

Data source: CIC, 346 BBS/Blog users that post comments on

brands/products online

Why do consumers generate and disseminate

IWOM?

© 2009 CIC

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The motivations behind consumer participation in online communities also differ acrossvarious platforms. Users in BBS are more frequently motivated by the desire to help others, touphold justice or to ask for help. Consumer posting behavior in BBS is mainly driven by thefollowing: posting replies to help others; researching IWOM before purchasing; looking forsolutions post-purchase; defending good brands/products or disclosing bad ones . Comparedwith BBS, blogs is a better platform for self expression. Consumers are more motivated topublish blog articles on brands or products for the following reasons: to record personal lifeexperiences; to express opinions and preferences including his/her passion towards differentbrands and product experience.

These findings also coincide with our findings for BBS and blog in our “Internet is THECommunity- Topic 1: The Chinese IWOM Landscape” released in 2008 which stated: “BBS isthe platform that aggregates information and topics and helps users find friends with sharedinterests to communicate with, while most blogs are diaries or very personal expressions .“

For user segmentation, active BBS and blog users are motivated by all of the aspectsmentioned above. This is further explained in Topic 1 of “Making Sense of IWOM” where wefound that: ”compared with general participants who pay attention to IWOM to reducepurchasing risk, active users prefer to find friends with shared interests to communicate theirpreferences. In other words, they pay attention to IWOM even with no clear purchasingintention. They are willing to express their passion and preferences towards brands and sharewith friends with same interests”

Figure 6 Motivation behind consumer participation in online communities II

Data source: CIC, 346 BBS/Blog users that post comments on

brands/products online

Why do consumers generate and disseminate

IWOM?

© 2009 CIC

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We mentioned in the previous section that active users and general participants had different

motivations for generating and disseminating IWOM in online communities. During the

research interviews, we also found that the active BBS and blog users were willing to spend

time and energy in online communities, express and disseminate various information and

personal opinions. In the following section we will try to describe these active users’ vibrant

online life and personality characteristics.

As mentioned in the summary, we segmented active users into disseminators and opinion

leaders according to their different level of involvement in generating and disseminating

IWOM.

To communicate with friends with shared interests in real life and online community.

Disseminators emphasize "people" and interaction in online community. Blogs function as

a private platform which is more convenient for communication with intimate friends. BBS is

an open platform for chatting with friends and others about common topics. These users

engage in many online and offline events with their online friends shortening the

relationship distance from both a mental and physical perspective .

Example:

Made friends in online communities first, and then bought a car:

" I joined this QQ Car club and made a lot of friends, I discovered the QQ car suits me, so I

bought it. "

Posted messages is a good way to interact with friends:

“After you participate in a BBS for a while, you will naturally develop close friends. Replying

to a post is a kind of way to communicate with them.“

Actively participated in off-line activities:

“I always take part in all the activities held by the Car club and which usually involve

traveling. Someone also shared a good recommendation for a cheap gas station."

Communicating with friends

Disseminator actively express themselves and share personal opinions on the internet.

They are willing to disseminate information and feelings both related and unrelated to

products and brands. The factors that motivate them to devote their time and energy to

participating in online communities generally include the following:

How to segment the consumers who

actively generate and disseminate IWOM?

© 2009 CIC

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They hope online user comments are based on real experiences with products or brands. If

they see some brands or products are slandered, they will definitely defend the truth by

expressing their personal experiences. They also will expose seeding posts using evidence

if they come across a post where a brand or product is overly praised. They will defend

brands or products they think are attacked unfairly and will criticize brands that they believe

are bad or harmful.

Example:

Hope each product and brand is treated equally:

“It is unfair to some brands when people just echo other’s complaints without having their

own views. I wrote a review of a headphone which was attacked by others on BBS.”

Obtain happiness from revealing the seeders:

"It is fun to disclose the seeders in the community."

They have rich knowledge and experience and are willing to share this information

with online friends to help others. They value "content sharing" in online community

and are willing to share their experiences regarding brands and products. They enjoy

knowing that their information, answers and solutions are helping other users.

Example:

Getting a lot of fun out of content sharing:

“I enjoy the process of sharing and I also benefit from it. In many cases I go from

knowing nothing to knowing something and in turn am able to teach others.”

“After buying Excelle , I posted many pictures of it on BBS ."

Defending the truth

Sharing knowledge and experience

How to segment the consumers who actively

generate and disseminate IWOM?

© 2009 CIC

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They want to do something meaningful because the online community has become a part

of their life. At the beginning they just lurk, then they will become more active and post a

few useful articles to enrich the online community. As their experiences online develop

further, their activity level and comments quality upgrade, and their influence within

communities becomes stronger.

Example:

If you stay in a community for a long time, you will start to present your own ideas:

"You have to reply to something, since just lurking or spamming is not good. Once you

realize it is meaningless, you will start to share something useful. Therefore, you should

start a conversation and share your feelings with others.”

To strengthen their relationships with current customers and seek potential business

opportunities and cooperation. They update their blogs or start new conversations in order

to enhance the communication with clients or sell products.

Example:

In-depth communication with customers:

“Sometimes I will invite some of my customers to visit my blog and if I find some good

articles, I will put them on my blog. Blogs are a good platform for communication.”

Post or update blogs to sell products part-time:

“I also write articles about badminton, and sometimes organize badminton competitions. My

blog is a good channel to find and invite others.”

Growing in online community

Helping them with their work

How to segment the consumers who actively

generate and disseminate IWOM?

© 2009 CIC

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Opinion leaders are the most active and influential groups in online communities.

They show unique power in their respective skilled area. We conducted in-depth

interviews with BBS/Blog opinion leaders to explore the IWOM behavior of this

demographic. Through research, we found that different opinion leaders vary in terms of

motivation, experience and professional level. Based on this, we segmented them into 4

categories as below:

These contributors are passionate about particular products or brands.

Most of their articles are written in a professional manner and are

based on real experience. They keep their platforms and profiles well

maintained and are creative with them.“At the beginning, I set up my blog to tell people that Lining is a really good

domestic brand. I did this to both support the domestic brand and also to

increase the popularity of my blog. I update my blog every day and also visit

BBS frequently, so I have a deep understanding of these two platforms."

These contributors are experts of their favorite brands and

product categories. Their articles are mainly from their own

experiences and personal perspectives . They enjoy the fun and

creativity of expressing themselves online. “I pay more attention to notebook computers, because I often change my

notebook, and frequently help my friends to choose an appropriate

notebook computer. I am honest and I tell them the advantages and

disadvantages of the products. ”

They are not professional or particularly experienced in online

community. However, they are willing to share their thoughts

about the product experiences and other information. They care

about their status in the community and other users’ feedback.“Every weekend, my mailbox is filled with flyers and advertisements. I

share any useful information that I come across with others in BBS.”

“Within BBS, I am able to make friends with many mothers. Although we

have never met in person, we still could make a phone when I got

problems."

Their articles are in-depth and systematic and cover a wide range of

topics. Most topics are deliberately chose and are not based on

experience. They upload blog posts and BBS conversations regularly to

make their platforms attractive to other users. They consider BBS or

blog as their main or part-time career.“I am always online except meal time. I search for information and write articles in

the morning ,communicate with friends and have a rest in the afternoon.”

How to segment the consumers who actively

generate and disseminate IWOM?

© 2009 CIC

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Our analysis provides an overview of the online community and its user groups.

The real online community is more sophisticated and dynamic and the role of a

netizen is diverse and changeable rather than stable and fixed. One user may be

an opinion leader or disseminator in one area, and a general participant in

another. Also, one user may be an opinion leader in one community while is

disseminator or general participant in another. Moreover, with the innovation and

development of the internet, online communities are always evolving and netizens

are consistently growing and changing within the online community. The “general

participant” today may grow to be the “disseminator” or even the “opinion leader”

in the future. Therefore, brands should not simply listen to the IWOM, understand

the group’s characteristics and culture, but more importantly, brands need to

participate and become involved in the online community to benefit from

consumers’ insight and communicate with them on an equal level. Furthermore, in

Topic 3 “how brands can participate in online communities” ,we will elaborate on

ways brands can motivate and trigger netizen’s passion and creativity to bring

more value to the brand as well as online community via meaningful interaction.

How to segment the consumers who actively

generate and disseminate IWOM?

© 2009 CIC

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About IWOM White Paper

About CIC IWOM White Paper

In the past five years, CIC led by our Intelligence Center has continued to share

our latest research and findings about IWOM in China with industry clients and

friends. Based on our insights and experiences from working in the Chinese

IWOM research industry for almost 5 years, our CIC IWOM Whitepapers also

incorporate thinking from areas such as marketing communications, IT, sociology

and statistics. In publishing these whitepapers we aim to create a resource which

monitors and catalogues the developments in the IWOM industry and in doing so

helps to move the whole industry forward as a result.

From last year’s IWOM Whitepaper series titled the “Internet is the Community” to

this year’s series titled “Making Sense of IWOM,” we have shown how powerful

the Internet and IWOM is in reshaping the relationships between brands and

consumers and that consumer comments have now become the key factor in

influencing purchase decisions.

For more information about the Chinese Internet and the rapid development of

IWOM in China please visit iwommaster.com or our blog seeisee.com, or to see all

our previous whitepapers please visit our slideshare site.

About “Making Sense of IWOM” White Paper series

This research, conducted by CIC, is the first of its kind in China and is based on

comprehensive qualitative and quantitative offline research in

Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu, whose survey results include

feedback from 640 BBS/blog users, 8 focus groups discussion and 32 in-depth

interviews with efluencers.

CIC will leverage these results and combined with its unique and leading

perspectives on Chinese IWOM development, to create a total of 3 in-depth

installments including “the Role of IWOM in Purchase Decisions”, "How IWOM is

generated and disseminated" and "How brands can participate in online

communities."

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About CIC

CIC is the thought leader in Internet Word of Mouth (IWOM) with over 4 years

experience in China working with cutting edge clients across multiple industries

on a retainer basis. With a proven approach and case studies, CIC is the first

and best option in China to help clients make sense of the buzz. CIC coined the

term IWOM and has pioneered the concept of IWOM, redefining the relationship

between brands and consumers. CIC is committed to both providing objective

third party strategic advice to clients and promoting the healthy development of

the Internet Community in China. CIC's research and discussion of IWOM's

impact and best practices can be found on its company blogs, in its IWOM white

papers and IWOM watch reports and through its IWOM roundtable events such

as IWOM summit and IWOM classroom.

CIC offers customized and syndicated reports as well as an industry leading

IWOM analytics dashboard which is supported by proprietary Chinese language

based text mining technology (patent pending), data processing technology and

data visualization technology. CIC's retainer relationships stretch over multiple

years with multinational clients from Fortune 500 companies.

CIC's continual development and evolution is driven by an unique, powerful and

open mindset and learning culture which at its foundation continually seeks to

understand how the Internet, and IWOM, is redefining the relationships between

brands and consumers.

For more information, please visit

• www.iwommaster.com (CIC IWOM master intelligence service platform)

• www.ciccorporate.com (CIC website),

• www.seeisee.com (CIC Company blog in Chinese)

• www.seeisee.com/sam (Founder's company blog in English).

Address:

Room 108, Building A, UDC Innovative Plaza

No.125, North Jiangsu Road

Shanghai, 200042, China

Phone: 021-52373860 / 61 / 62 / 63

Fax: 021-52373632

Email: info@cicdata.com

© 2009 CIC

This report is copyrighted material owned by CIC. Any improper use of this

document or its content will be considered a violation of CIC IP copyright

and CIC has the right to take legal action.